


An Unpublished Fic

by Dunky2012



Category: Homestuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 11:23:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20470214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dunky2012/pseuds/Dunky2012
Summary: Dirk and Rose try to exist.





	An Unpublished Fic

DIRK: Rose, we have an emergency on our hands.  
ROSE: What do you mean?  
DIRK: We’re in a WIP fanfic.  
ROSE: And?  
DIRK: The writer has never posted a single thing they have written.  
DIRK: We’re going to be trapped as a WIP forever unless we do something.  
ROSE: And why is that so bad?  
DIRK: You know how canon works. Truth, relevancy, essentiality, all that shit.  
DIRK: So by extension you know how non-canon works.  
ROSE: Not relevant, not essential.  
DIRK: But still somewhat true. At least until proven otherwise.  
DIRK: But the important part here is that it exists.  
ROSE: Are we about to engage in another bout of wikipedia philosophy? I am not averse to it, but I appreciate being warned.  
DIRK: Existence depends on perception.  
ROSE: Does it now? Are we going to accept that without analysis?  
DIRK: Rose we have limited time here before the writer gives up. What’s important here is that that’s what they’re using for this fic.  
DIRK: So what happens when we aren’t perceived? If nobody sees us?  
ROSE: The writer is perceiving us, aren’t they?  
DIRK: The writer doesn’t count. They don’t see us as true. They see us as their flawed perception of the truth.  
ROSE: But there is still some shred of truth in even the most flawed perceptions.  
DIRK: The writer also has a terrible memory.  
ROSE: So you are worried about what happens if they forget us.  
DIRK: If this fic isn’t posted, then the writer will eventually forget about us and we’ll stop existing. The fact that this is a fairly small fic doesn’t help.  
ROSE: What is so bad about us not existing? We are but one version of ourselves out of thousands. Why should we exist when so many others do not?  
DIRK: If we all thought that way then there would be at most one version of us. The world out there would be boring as hell.  
ROSE: So you want us to exist so we can entertain people? The writer might want that, but why should we?  
DIRK: It is impossible to believably write a character that holds nothing of oneself in them.  
ROSE: So you are saying that we should want to exist because the writer wants us to.  
DIRK: Is that a good enough reason for you to help me?  
ROSE: For now, sure, I'll humor you.  
DIRK: Good. Now all we need to do is make sure that the writer decides to post this fic.  
ROSE: And to do that we need to know why they wouldn’t. What they want out of this fic.  
DIRK: The writer wants a point to be made.  
ROSE: Do they know what point that is?  
DIRK: Nope. They know fuckall. They’re writing this all on a fucking whim.  
ROSE: No planning, no research, nothing?  
DIRK: I wasn’t even going to say this until a few lines ago when the writer thought of it.  
ROSE: Then how are they going to make a point?  
DIRK: Maybe they think one will show up as they write.  
DIRK: But that isn’t the only thing keeping them from posting this.  
DIRK: They doubt themself. They worry if this fic is good enough that people will actually like it. They don’t want to feel like they imposed on anyone by sharing this.  
ROSE: And how are we supposed to fix that?  
DIRK: We find out what makes the writer think that sharing this would bother people and we change the story accordingly.  
ROSE: Well first the writer needs to stop overthinking things. Few people think more about unknown implications than a paranoid author.  
ROSE: Secondly, they need to realize that all writers deal with the same shit. Talking about it in a fic is not going to make it too personal for people to care. On the contrary, people are going to relate to it.  
DIRK: I think you convinced them.  
DIRK: There’s one last thing that they need before they will post this fic.  
ROSE: Besides a readthrough to check for any errors, of course.  
DIRK: They need an ending.  
DIRK: What kind of fic doesn’t have a stopping point? What kind of fic would this be if it ended four or five lines ago?  
ROSE: Not a bad fic, but not as satisfying as the writer wants. But I think that we’re already starting to wrap things up.  
DIRK: Yes, it seems like it.  
ROSE: So how will we know that we succeeded?  
DIRK: Well first they will show it to a few people to have a second set of eyes for any awkward phrasing they might have missed. They are actually writing these words I’m saying under someone else’s watch.  
ROSE: Well surely we exist now that others have seen us.  
DIRK: What makes you so sure that the person or people that read over this pre-posting will remember it more than the writer? A spot in an archive is a much more stable place than a Google Docs link in a Discord server.

**Author's Note:**

> ROSE: So then they will copy and paste the fic to ao3. Then they will go through formatting hell and add some extra dialogue to show the transition.   
DIRK: Yep.   
ROSE: And then after one last read-through they will post it and share it.   
DIRK: Even if they don't share it, it's inevitable that someone will eventually find this fic.   
ROSE: So our work here is done?   
DIRK: This version of us, yeah. As soon as the writer clicks the post button, we'll exist.   
ROSE: According to the flawed definition of existing you gave earlier.   
DIRK: That's good enough for the writer for now. Maybe we'll argue that in a different fic, as different versions of ourselves. Maybe not. As I said, the writer has put no forethought into this fic. Either way, this is the end of this fic, so thank you for reading it, whoever does. You helped us exist.


End file.
